Favorite Shopping Blogs

I was sharing some of my favorite recent finds from Etsy last night with Red Fraggle, and to my surprise she'd never heard of this site, which is an online community that allows artists and craftspeople to sell their wonderful work directly to the public. Red's woeful ignorance about Etsy prompted me to write this post, wherein I share my favorite shopping blogs (the ones that led me to all those great things on Etsy).

Despite starting this post with a bunch of specific beautiful things, what I'm about to share are not creaters of beautiful things, but great blogs that do all the culling of Etsy and other online retailers for you. They tell you what they've found and like and each of these sites have led me to a number of great products.

First, and the blog that introduced me to the world of shopping blogs is Sundry Buzz. This isn't really a shopping blog per se, in that the site's author, Linda, is aiming more to share her personal reviews and thoughts on products she actually uses. It's well written, fun, and every once in awhile I actually take her advice.

Perhaps my favorite shopping blog of all is Awesome! It's written by a consortium of very hip seeming young women (like one of my favorite bloggers, Wendy) about my age (30) and they post great finds of every possible description. Beauty products, clothes, jewelry, men's wear, household gadgets . . . it's all here and it's all well-edited. Their annual gift guides are particularly fabulous.

Then there's She's a Betty, which links to interesting vintage and independent fashion. Most of it isn't really stuff I'd ever buy, but I like seeing what she finds, and every once in a while I click through to something that's just unique and perfect.

Last but not least we come to Mighty Goods. This is a pretty bare bones shopping site, not a lot of commentary, they get right to the point with links and photos. Like Awesome, it's well edited, and covers just about any cool product you might buy online, from art prints to jeans to desk accessories.

I hope somebody finds something on one of these sites usefull, and if you have your own favorite shopping blogs, please share in the comments.

How Not to Decorate

Has anyone else caught this show on BBCA? The title is obviously a play on the infamous and fabulous What Not to Wear, and indeed the two shows are paired together on Wednesday nights. Anyway, for those of you who can't resist a good home decorating show, this is totally for you. It's got a nice little twist on the usual theme, as the two designers are these FABULOUS and completely unrealistic Scottish fellows, Colin and Justin, who blow in, decide what needs to be done, and then leave their crew to get to it while they go shopping. Of course, the schedule is always too tight and the budget too small to perfectly implement their vision, and various madcap antics ensue as their team blatantly lies to them about the status of the projects, and begs to be allowed to do things more easily and cheaply, and Colin and Justin have fits and throw tantrums about the complete unsuitability of plastic bath fronts to their design scheme. It's completely adorable. But the best bit is when they check in a month after they've left and see all the horrible changes that the homeowners have made. I highly recommend it.

[On a side note, has anybody been watching the newish episodes of What Not to Wear that don't have Trinny and Susanna? The new presenters are TERRIBLE. They don't seem to give any real rules or advice about fashion at all. They're not stylists, they're an ex-model and a singer whose own style choices are questionable. It's ridiculous.]